Ward wins over Barrera in light heavyweight debut
OAKLAND, Calif, March 27, (Agencies): Andre Ward lost a point for a low blow in the eighth and later drew a warning for an accidental head butt.
Not even that was enough to slow the former Olympic gold medalist’s march toward a possible tight fight in his new division.
Ward unanimously outpointed Sullivan Barrera in his light heavyweight debut Saturday night, setting the stage for a potential title fight against unified champion Sergey Kovalev.
“It feels great,” Ward said. “I feel like I shook off a lot of ring rust. I had high expectations for this fight but I think I got it done. I need to tighten things up. I have a lot to prove in this decision.”
Ending a nine-month layoff while fighting for just the fourth time in four years, Ward (29-0) knocked down Barrera in the second round with a sharp left. The 34-year-old Cuban bounced up quickly before Ward landed another pair of stinging lefts to the head.
About the only thing to go wrong for the Oakland fighter came late in the eighth when referee Raul Caiz deducted a point from Ward for the low blow that sent Barrera (17-1) down to one knee.
All three judges had Ward winning easily. The scores were 117-109, 119-109 and 117-108.
The win paves the way for Ward to fight Kovalev, the Russian slugger who has defended his title three times since beating Bernard Hopkins in a unification match in 2014. While talks between both camps have been ongoing, things are expected to heat up now.
“Sergey Kovalev is a great champion,” Ward said. “I fight the best, I always fight the best and he’s just another name.”
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Britain’s Kell Brook said he wanted a fight against rival world champion
Danny Garcia after making short work of his International Boxing Federation welterweight title defence with a secondround stoppage of Canada’s Kevin Bizier on Saturday.
Victory in front of his home crowd in Sheffield, northern England, saw Brook extend his perfect professional record to 36 wins from 36 bouts with 25 knockouts.
But the speed with which Brook stopped his game, if outclassed, opponent was sure to raise questions about how the IBF managed to select Bizier as a mandatory challenger for the title.
“I have been training a long, long time. I wanted to warm up into it and have an all out war, but he couldn’t stand up to it,” Brook told Sky Sports after victory by technical knock out in two minutes and 15 seconds of the second round.
“I want the big fights. I have my mandatory out of the way. I have power that can knock heavyweights out,” he added after his third title defence. “That is what we have to do now -- make a big fight.”
Brook has yet to have a careerdefining contest against a major name such as American fighter Garcia and, pressed on who he wanted to face next, the 29-year-old said: “I want that WBC (World Boxing Council) belt, Danny Garcia.
“Or Manny Pacquiao, or Timothy Bradley,” he added, with the latter two boxers facing each other in a couple of weeks’ time.
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British middleweight boxer Nick Blackwell remains in an induced coma following his defeat to Chris Eubank Jr on Saturday.
The 25-year-old fighter suffered bleeding on the brain after the fight was stopped in the 10th round. The stoppage came after a ringside doctor advised the referee that Blackwell was unable to see through his left eye.
He was carried out of the venue on a stretcher.
British Boxing Board of Control general secretary Robert Smith says Sunday: “He’s in intensive care, he’s in an induced coma and he is resting and being looked after by the experts.
“It’s a very normal procedure. They put you in a coma to get the swelling to go down. There’s no time-scale. Now it’s just a matter of waiting and seeing.”